WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined her Democratic colleagues in requesting that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declassify and publicly release the written opinion of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on the Trump Administration’s lethal airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services were allowed to review the Trump Administration’s classified OLC opinion in a closed setting last week. To date, the Trump Administration has carried out at least 21 unauthorized military strikes – primarily off the coast of Venezuela – that have killed at least 83 people.
“Significant and noteworthy precedent exists for the public release of OLC opinions related to overseas military action,” wrote the Senators. “After the United States carried out military strikes in Libya in 2011 and in Syria in 2018, the Department of Justice released the applicable OLC opinion justifying each operation.”
“Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force,” the Senators continued. “We therefore believe that the declassification and public release of this important document would enhance transparency in the use of deadly force by our Nation’s military and is necessary to ensure Congress and the American people are fully informed of the legal justification supporting these strikes.”
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